THE SOI T1TKKN PLAN 



the average of a peck for each hog. Therefore the 

 fattening is due in very slight degree to corn, and 

 almost entirely to the peas and potatoes. Peas 

 alone will fatten very considerably, but not enough 

 to make good pork. But with potatoes, the hogs 

 are not only made very fat, but their fat is even more 

 firm and white than of hogs fattened on corn. After 

 cold weather requires that potatoes should be dug, 

 they are boiled before being fed to the hogs. Mr. 

 Winslow is a very large and successful raiser of 

 hogs, and seller of pork. I learn from others that 

 his pork, fattened as above stated, is deemed the 

 best in the markets. 



Pea- Culture for Manuring. 



73. Twelve to fifteen years ago, Judge Thomas 

 Ruffin, of Allamance, North Carolina, gave up an 

 enclosed lot of 14 acres, of very poor and exhausted 

 land to the following culture: The land was ploughed 

 every spring, usually in May, and peas planted in 

 3 feet rows and about 15 to 18 inches apart — 12 to 

 15 seed dropped at each place. Two slight plough- 

 ings were subsequently given, soon after the last of 

 which the vines crossed and covered the intervals, 

 so that no further tillage was needed, or practicable. 

 One slight hand-hoeing was given early, to chop 

 out the strong weeds between the stations. The 

 whole tillage very slight and cheap. When from 

 half to two-thirds of the pods were ripe (or dry,) 

 the hogs designed for slaughter that season only 

 w r ere put into the lot, (usually 80 to 100) and re- 

 mained until they had eaten all the peas. They 

 eat but little of either the vines and leaves, or of the 

 pea-hulls. Sometimes a little grazing of beef cat- 

 tle only occurred in addition to the hogs. All re- 

 mained in the lot during the whole time of their 

 grazing on it, night and day, and no other food 

 given — except sometimes a cart load of pumpkins 

 or turnips were given, once or twice a week, and 

 this of course not until late, or after frost. For 5 

 successive years, and about the middle of the whole 

 term, the continued pea culture was varied by 3 

 crops of oats being sown, in years alternating with 

 others of pea-culture, making a crop of peas and 

 of oats in alternate years. The oats, when in milk, 

 had the hogs turned on, and as much of the crop 

 eaten as the hogs would consume — and also of the 

 second growth of young plants, from the wasted 

 seeds germinating. This substitution of oats was 

 deemed less valuable than the peas, and so was 

 abandoned, and the general course resumed. No 

 other manure, or aid, has been given to the land in 

 this whole time. No products have been (or could 

 have been) measured. But Judge R. is sure that 

 the land could not have produced more than 5 

 bushels of corn to the acre when his course was 

 begun, and that it would now bring three times as 

 much, or 15 bushels. This is still a poor rate of 

 product — and much less of improvement than usu- 

 ally obtained from pea-manuring. But in this case, 

 all the product of seed or grain of every year's 

 growth, lias been consumed, (except the few pump- 

 kins or turnips,) and no return, other than the ex 

 crements of the fattening animals. The hilly sur- 

 face of the land permitting washing, with all the 

 care to prevent, has also retarded the progress of 

 improvement. 



Repealed Applications of Guano Losing Effect. — 

 Rapid Disappearance of Animal Manure. 



74. Mr. Edmund J. Plowden, of St. Mary's 

 county, Md., cultivates, near the mouth, of the 

 W icomico river, emptying in the Potomac, oppo- 



site Westmoreland, Va. The land in question had 

 been limed in 1840, with 150 bushels of slacked 

 lime to the acre ; the lime burnt of shells of the 

 " Indian banks," which, from admixtures of bones, 

 &c, contains about two per cent, of phosphate of 

 lime, the land red, not originally fertile, bore pine 

 partly at first, and had been under a second growth 

 of pine previous to the second clearing. Follow- 

 ing a crop of com, in 1844, the same autumn Peru- 

 vian guano had been ploughed under for wheat, 

 200 pounds to the acre. The crop good, and the 

 benefit from guano satisfactory. It being neces- 

 sary to make a change of the fields, or of the 

 cropping, the same land (in wheat stubble) was 

 again ploughed for and sown in wheat, with 200 

 pounds of Patagonian guano ploughed under. The 

 effects good, and the crop of wheat satisfactory. 

 The land had been sown in clover, and produced a 

 very good growth, and remained under that erop 

 the succeeding year, (as usual,) was grazed, but 

 partially, after May 10th, and ploughed under in 

 August for wheat, for which (wheat or clover fal- 

 low,) there was ploughed under a third application 

 of 150 pounds of Peruvian guano. Fair or mode- 

 rate product of wheat, not so good as before, and 

 the clover succeeding inferior, though a good clo- 

 ver season. After one year of clover, corn, a tole- 

 rable crop. No wheat followed the corn that 

 autumn; but next year the land was ploughed for 

 wheat, (a usual practice, and good for destroying 

 blue-grass, and called " corn-stubble fallow,") and 

 150 pounds of guano applied. The crop of wheat 

 (1852) was very inferior to every one of the former 

 crops, and inferior, as he thinks, to what would 

 have been the crop if no guano had ever been 

 used. The clover following was a very scanty 

 sprinkling of plants, and these of very poor growth. 

 The weeds which have possession of the ground 

 are such as belong to poor land. All the guano 

 used in this series of years, (700 pounds in all to 

 the acre,) was bought of the importers, and each 

 lot believed to be good of its kind. 



With the above first two, or, perhaps, three ap- 

 plications of guano, there was intermixed and 

 sown half a bushel of gypsum to the acre ; but not 

 approving the addition, the gypsum was afterwards 

 omitted. 



75. Mr. Plowden further states that his county- 

 man, Dr. Robert Neale, (an intelligent, observant 

 and scientific farmer,) used on a piece of land — for 

 corn — 250 pounds of guano, ploughed under broad- 

 cast, and 200 pounds more in the drills, on same 

 space, (450 pounds in all.) The corn stood very 

 thick — the season was plenty wet — and the product 

 very heavy. Mr. P. saw the crop standing, and it 

 was supposed to be equal to 90 or 100 bushels to 

 the acre. Next year the same land was prepared 

 for tobacco, with another application of 250 to 300 

 lbs. of guano, ploughed under broad-cast. From 

 the time the tobacco plants were set out, they con- 

 tinued stunted, and scarcely grew at all, and pro- 

 duced scarcely any crop. On a part of the same, 

 manured from the farm yard, (on the guano for 

 the previous corn crop only,) there was made a 

 very fine crop of tobacco. Tins land of Dr. Neale 

 is part of a section of country on which guano has 

 been found to be peculiarly efficacious. 



76. Another case of remarkable and rapid- dis- 

 appearance of the most abundant and rich animal 

 manure had occurred in Mr. Plowden's personal 

 experience. Formerly, when he was a very young 

 and inexperienced farmer, and also owning a large 

 herring fishery, he applied an immense quantity of 



